This is just a little information about the food you will be having during our visit to New Orleans this fall. As a word of advice to you, I strongly recommend you place yourself on a diet, weeks before you go down there. It's easier to take off weight, before you gain, and I guarantee you will be picking up a few pounds during your short stay. When the taste changes with every bite and the last bite tastes as good as the first, that's Cajun and Creole cooking!

Cajuns originated in Southern France, immigrated to Nova Scotia in the early 1600's and settled a colony that came to be called Acadia. In the Mid-1700's the British drove them out of Nova Scotia and many of them migrated to Louisiana, where they were well received by the large population of French. They usually settled along the waterways and turned to their traditional country practices of fishing, trapping and farming for a living. Several of Jerry Ragas ancestors were among those Acadians that migrated from Nova Scotia to Louisiana, and settled around the small town of Buras, where he was born and raised until he joined the Air Force at the age of eighteen.

Fabulous food is a part of Cajun pride. It's their tradition to always celebrate with food and welcome guests with food and coffee. The most important thing to them is the health of their family and the joy of setting a good table. I have made several trips down there to visit Jerry's family and friends and have become well aquatinted with them, and have always enjoyed their great sense of humor and storytelling. They have taught me a great deal about food; it's lore, the different kinds of food and how they're prepared. I have never came away from there hungry.

I took up cooking as one of my hobbies many years ago. I have found Louisiana to be a terrific setting for a cook because of its bountiful natural resources, including a variety of wildlife and wealth of fresh seafood that is extraordinary because of the state's diverse water resources; the brackish waters in the coastal wetlands and in many of the southernmost lakes, the salt water of the Gulf, and the fresh water lakes and streams throughout the state. Also, their subtropical climate produces a taste in fruits and vegetables that is unmatched, and when the taste is there, it's just really staggering. The use of the local products is without a doubt the single most important factor in their eating. The freshness of the ingredients carries over into all their foods, which includes meats, seafood and vegetables.

What's the difference in Cajun and Creole cooking? Well, not a hell-of-a-lot in that Cajun and Creole cuisine's share many similarities. Both are Louisiana born with French roots. But Cajun is very old French cooking, and is a simple hearty fare. Cajun food began in Southern France, moved on to Nova Scotia and then came to Louisiana. The Acadians adopted their dishes to use ingredients that grew wild in the area, such as bay leaves from the laurel tree, file' powder from the sassafras tree and an abundance of different peppers such as cayenne, Tabasco peppers, banana peppers and bird's-eye peppers that grow wild in Southern Louisiana, where they learned their uses from the native Indians.

The evolution of Creole cooking, just like the Cajun, has depended heavily on whatever foods have been available. But Creole food, unlike the Cajun, began in New Orleans and is a mixture of the traditions of French, Spanish, Italian, American Indian, African and other ethnic groups. Seven flags flew over New Orleans in the early days, and each time a new nation took over, many members of the deposed government would leave the city; most of their cooks and other servants stayed behind. The position of the cook was highly esteemed and was the best-paid position in the household. Other families, often of a different nationality, would hire these cooks, most of whom were black. Of course, the cooks would have to change their style of cooking. over a period of time, they learned how to cook for a variety of nationalities, and they incorporated their own spicy, home-style way of cooking onto the different cuisines of their employers. This is the way Creole food was created. Creole cooking is more sophisticated and complex than Cajun cooking, and that's because it's city cooking.

Today, in homes, there is still a distinction between Cajun and Creole cooking; in restaurants, little distinction remains. That’s why I have referred the two together as one, and that is Louisiana cooking!

I certainly hope to see you all there this fall--Bon Appetite-

-God Bless—Buddie Ballard